Learning How to be Healthy and Well Part 4

A lot of stressful stuff is happening in my life away from blogging. All of it is stressful, heavy, and hard. Circumstances are forcing me to change the way I do stuff. Stress management is incredibly important for thriving with my condition, so I am trying new ways to manage stress (in addition to the ones I have already talked about in previous posts) and the anxiety that comes from stress. I thought I would share these with all of you because you or someone you know may benefit. They are as follows in no particular order:

1. meditation: I have a subscription to headspace. You can visit: http://www.headspace.com to check it out. Full disclosure mediation is NOT easy for me. My mind is constantly going, so it is a challenge to still my mind, but I will keep trying and get better at it.
2. Deep conscious breathing
3. Visualization: When I am stressed I imagine all the people I love around me on either Granny’s farm or at the beach. That helps me center and calm down a lot
4. A nice, hot, shower or simply washing my face helps me center as well because I am taking time for me
5. Making a weekly to-do list really helps because I can focus on tasks better marking things off as they are taken care of
6. Using the calendar on my phone because it is always never further away than my pocket and it can be updated, easily. For me: knowing what a day or week looks like helps me feel less stressed. I can manage my time better this way.
7. Scheduling fun: This is not a new practice for me, but I am making a conscious effort to do so…again. Yes, I have to schedule fun. If I do not: I work too hard and burn myself out. My fun last week was something I have had scheduled since July: Adam Pascal’s concert which was last Tuesday. The ticket was extremely affordable because it was for access to the livestream and the video on demand replay for a week. It was also safe given the Delta Variant surge of COVID-19 cases all across the US and world. I watched the concert on my laptop from my apartment.

I hope these additional suggestions for stress management help you or someone you love. They are a form of self care and can aid your overall health and wellness, too.